"You Talkin' to Me?" [Edtorial]

It is argued that an even higher ideal to advancing knowledge is critiquing it as it happens. Reflective practice is not just something to be done by academics in their teaching. Reflective practice is what we should all be doing as we go about our various day-to-day work tasks. For the engineer engaged in research and development, whether in industry or government, reflective practice means to analytically critique what they are doing and why they are doing it. Something that we have not done as well is to comprehend the bigger picture of what all our discoveries, innovations, and radical breakthroughs will actually mean for society at large, and why we are being propelled this way or that when it comes to specific areas of research. As engineers we must be held accountable with respect to a device's function and application. We should not simply be building because someone has given us the money to build; nor should we be building with the "build and they will come" mentality. This is to be near-sighted, to think of the "now" not later ideal, and to ignore the potential consequences. Ethics is increasingly being considered in the engineering discipline. The study of ethical aspects has become integral in engineering and computing curricula internationally. However, it remains to be seen how organizations and institutions will espouse ethics in their methodological processes.